Chapter 1

Naming Conventions

AmazonAbeen entered The Month Bank and walked toward a teller, Bushy, to open a savings account.
“So when do you want your account activated?”
“Well, let’s see, January, February, March, April, May, June, July – July it is!”
“My God, dude, you count the months exactly the way I do! I always have to start from the first month and reach a destination month one by one.”
“Wow, you actually are not used to the way Unistatians name their months?”
“Of course not, man. All 12 months have different names, and they expect me to remember them all? I much prefer naming them Firstmonth, Secondmonth, Thirdmonth … they would be so much easier to remember.”

“Yeah, I am all for that wonderful idea!”
“Okay, now I am going to the Gray House and submit the legislation immediately. Thank you for supporting this idea which has been mocked by all my acquaintances ever since I came up with it…”

So you see, from now on Unistatians have easy-to-remember names for the twelve months, thanks to naming conventions.Naming conventions are simply conventions in naming elements in a program such as variables, classes, and objects.

On the surface, they may seem trivial and arbitrary because technically, one can name them whatever he wants to as long as he doesn’t violate the naming rules or use the keywords.

However, as you write programs on a regular basis you will realize that many of the common errors arise from confusion with naming.In this chapter we’ll explore several different ways of naming your program elements and compare them so you can pick your favorite one and stick with it the way you stick with your favorite food or TV show.